Waste Management's Proto Is Fired,
Drury Leaves in Wake of Problems

By

Jeff Bailey Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Aug. 16, 1999 4:29 p.m. ET

Waste Management Inc.'s board ousted Rodney R. Proto, the big trash hauler's No. 2 executive, while the company's ailing chairman and chief executive officer, John E. Drury, relinquished his posts, in the wake of earnings disappointments, a simmering accounting scandal and the sale by Mr. Proto and other insiders of big blocks of company stock.

With the company's year-old $19 billion merger with USA Waste Services Inc. in disarray, the board turned to one of its own, a former Chrysler Corp. vice chairman and corporate...